MANILA — Only around 10.5 million or 31% of the 33.3 million direct PhilHealth contributors consistently pay their premium, according to the Department of Health’s budget sponsor at the House of Representatives, Bataan 2nd District Representative Albert Garcia said.
Akbayan Party List Rep. Percival Cedaña urged PhilHealth to institute reforms to efficiently collect premiums.
He suggested looking into partnerships with the SSS, the GSIS, and the BIR so they can serve as collecting agents for PhilHealth.
“Not even half nakakabayad consistently ng kanilang premium. (01:14) Baka we can look into partnerships with SSS, GSIS, or in the long run, even with BIR?” Cedaña asked.
“May high level discussion with mentioned agencies at ang maganda rito, kasama ang leadership ng DOF, para talagang hopefully they would agree, at maging mas efficient ang collection in the future,” Garcia replied.
“To make the collection more efficient, sa ngayon data sharing lang ang nangyayari, pero ang gustong mangyari ng DOH at PhilHealth in the future is that these partners agencies or government corporation should collect the data, at i-share sa PhilHealth… that is what they are working on right now,” he added.
Cedaña said he is “very open” to support a legislation towards the partnership among the said agencies for a more efficient collection of premiums.
PhilHealth is also working on expanding and enhancing its benefits package.
Among those under development are packages for cervical, prostate, lung, liver, uterine and ovarian cancers, hepatitis, leprosy, leukemia, and congenital heart disorder.
PhilHealth has been appropriated a government subsidy, but has yet to receive around P112 billion. Of this figure, P69.3 billion is from sin taxes, and P42.34 billion is from PCSO and PAGCOR.
For 2026, PhilHealth spent P240 billion on benefits for indirect contributors.